Donors, Government and the funding of CSOs in Nigeria 

As Nigeria’s external debt climbs to $42.12 billion and as 62.9% of Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor, Official Development Assistance (ODA), is now viewed as a low-risk source for the government to raise much-needed revenue for priority projects.

ODA is not about commercial financing nor is it foreign direct investment.

ODA is aid from donors to the government for the promotion of economic development and the welfare of citizens. It includes grants, technical assistance, and soft loans, channelled through multilateral development agencies such as the World Bank.

Given the government’s urgent need for complementary sources of development financing, donors may well be  considering repurposing commitments from  the civil society sector to the government. This may be especially so for donors with Country Cooperation Agreements with significant programmatic priorities and fund commitments to Nigerian civil society organizations (CSOs).

These donors often base their commitment to CSOs on the underpinning assumption that – the stronger and more inclusive the CSO sector, the higher the level and quality of governance and the greater the level of a country’s sustainable development, economic growth, and stability. From this logic, donors argue that CSO contribution to good governance and sustainable development is best achieved through the services they deliver to communities; the advocacies conducted to hold government to account; the strengthening of CSO organizational capacity; and the creation of  dynamic infrastructure for CSO sustainability.

Four of Nigeria’s highest-funded multi-year donor investments to the CSO sector were made between 2015 to 2024. All four of these investments have either just ended or are at the point of closeout. The case for any new donor investments in the Nigeria CSO sector and the success of the next generation of investments rests on learnings from these big four investments.

The big four are:- 1) The Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PAS) program implemented by the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) between 2015-2022 and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF); 2) the Agents for Citizen-driven Transformation (ACT) Programme, 2019-2024, implemented by British Council and funded by the EU;  3) the Strengthening Civic Advocacy and Local Engagement (SCALE) 2020-2024 funded by USAID; and 4) the MacArthur Foundation’s On Nigeria Big Bet implement  under the sixth country  program (2015-2024) of the Foundation.

How did Nigerian civil society do between 2015 and 2024? Did they deliver on donors’ expectations of CSOs as advocates for change and stewards for capacity strengthening? The Nigeria CSO Sustainability Index is a good data source for answering these questions. Data from the Index shows that for the 10 years of deep investments in Nigerian CSOs, the most significant areas of CSO performance were in:- advocacy, service provision; sectoral infrastructural development, and organizational capacity development, in that order. Data from the Index also shows that with this significant level of CSO performance, the public image of CSOs improved and this was so despite a constraining legal environment. Lower numbers are indicative of higher performance in the Index.

Nigeria CSOs performance across 7 Sustainability Index Indicators 

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Source: USAID, CSO Sustainability Index, 2015 and 2022 

Evaluation findings from two of the big four CSO projects align with findings from the Index. ACT evaluation findings tell a story of over 233 local CSOs and 2,808 staff delivering services while strengthening the institutional and legal framework within which they operate. The Social Impact evaluation of the BMGF-funded PAS program pointed to the power of 8 lead CSOs mobilizing over 100 CSO coalition members to conduct successful one-voice policy and legislative health advocacy. Advocacy was informed by data and evidences and backed up by CSO leaders with skills and time to actively participate in Technical Working Groups (TWGs) and policy implementation committees.

For the SCALE project, about to go through a final performance evaluation, the Navanti evaluation design seems set to test the project’s theory of change and to also advance knowledge on big learning questions around localization and sustainability.  For the MacArthur foundation, the only one of the four big CSO-facing donors brave enough to support local groups confronting corruption in their good governance work, there is much to learn and even more to celebrate from the impact stories shared so far.

A fifth CSO-facing program outside the 2015-2024 timeline of the big four is the Building Institutions and Networks (BUILD) initiative implemented by the Ford Foundation West Africa Office from 2015-2021 and 2022-2026. BUILD is the only intervention designed to provide flexible funding to social justice CSOs in Nigeria to achieve programmatic goals and build long-term sustainability. The BUILD phase one evaluation concludes on the well-evidenced note that – BUILD works and is a game changer for grantees. Evaluation findings confirm the BUILD Theory of Change  and conclude that BUILD builds resilience of Nigerian CSOs and enables them to deliver on their core body of work.

The big takeaway from these four investments in the Nigerian CSO sector over the past 10 years is that CSOs are a good bet. Local CSOs are cost-effective at delivering services such as education and health to the grassroots; they generate employment and reinforce interest in public good; they hold government to account; innovate in addressing new challenges such as climate change; they create multi-interest group platforms incorporating under-and-un-represented demographics, especially women, girls and the disabled. When CSO organizational capacity strengthening is a component donor CSO-facing  programs, as in the case of BUILD, investing in CSOs is a powerful catalyst for sustainable interventions by sustainable local organizations.

Judith-Ann Walker is a specialist on localization and CSO effectiveness. She holds Masters and PhD Degrees in Development Studies from the ISS, the Hague; Netherlands. She is a Brookings Scholar; the Consultant to BMGF who conducted the milestone Nigeria CSO Landscaping study; and is the ED of the dRPC. She can be contacted at: j.walker@drpcngr.org